


Shifting Shadows

by ripplegrin



Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Fighting, Kamigawa, OCs - Freeform, fanfics, still working on writing action, they aren't graphic but its still a warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23858434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ripplegrin/pseuds/ripplegrin
Summary: Meiyo brings his family to kamigawa after a lot of deliberation. Once he leaves them at home, he meets one of the reasons why he left.





	Shifting Shadows

The air felt freshly magical as dust and spider lily pollen struck at the nostrils of the family that entered the Kamigawa mansion. Several insects of varying hues and other minor pests went skittering away as the door creaked open. Although it had been years since it held a permanent resident, the rooms happily allowed the family entry.

“Mei, you are aware maids exist to clean places like this when you aren’t around, yes?” Aja asked as she tried her best to find a place for her luggage. All five bags of it. Attractive was a word many would use for Aja. Many of them were under the effects of her magic and the rest were willing to give her their entire income to speak with her. Then there was Meiyo.

“Why would I hire a maid to do work I can easily do? That’s the living room. The bedrooms are further back.” Meiyo was not the epitome of manly. Or womanly. Meiyo was a changeling and it didn’t really matter what people viewed him as. The tight leathers, daggers peaking from under those leathers and the animal mask marked him as an assassin. An assassin who was currently cleaning out a room as his family was bringing in their necessities.

“Not much is living here, Mei. Unless you count that… what did you call them?”

“Kami.”

“Kami sleeping on its side.” 

“To be fair, it’s a spirit.” He quickly banished it with an abnormal tool we would call a broom. “Half alive.”

“Honey, I love you but please, get some cleaning supplies. Oh, and Sammy. Are you alright? You’ve been quiet.” Aja looked over to her new daughter. No one, at a glance at least, would expect that the changeling and his majestic wife would have given birth to a skinny red-haired girl who despised showing skin and was carrying in a massive axe and equally massive luggage. It would make even less sense if you compared the ages of her to her father. Samger’s head spun around, constantly looking out the windows and doorway.

“I can’t find Dodger.” Samger spoke with held back tears. Dodger was the family pet, a badger and a bit of a bastard. Most importantly, Dodger helped her calm down in new situations, such as this one.

“I’m sure he’s just exploring the new plane, honey. He’ll be back soon.” Aja placed a hand onto Samger’s shoulder as Meiyo, ever the pragmatist, slid past them with one of the suitcases. Samger nodded, mostly to make Aja feel like she’s doing the mom thing correctly and secondly to make herself believe it.

“Now then,” Aja clapped to get her family’s attention. “Let’s try to make this house livable!”

“Is that not what I’m doing?” Meiyo had already donned an apron, a pair of redundant gloves and a feather duster. The suitcase found itself in a new room by the power of his boot.

“Oh no no no, Mei. Your job is to get us food. You know where everything is here. And you wouldn’t want us two beautiful girls all on our lonesome, would you?” Aja hugged Samger and made her best kissy face at Meiyo.

“I’m beautiful...” Samger whispered under her breath with a blush.

“Yes, you are. And I shall have to do that. You can never be too sure of how the kami are and this place is more defended against them.”

“Mei, do you think a spirit could do anything to me?”

“I am never worried about what a ghost could do to you, my love.” Meiyo, as he usually does, was entirely monotone with his speech. Even with this tame and controlled pace, Aja blushed.

“Where did you learn to compliment like that, Mei?”

“From the best.” Within moments, Meiyo had already doffed his cleaning outfit and grabbed two bags, one of Kamigawa currency and a second that was for carrying the supplies back. “Assuming nothing holds me up, it should only take two hours. Perhaps less if Auntie Shouko is still around.”

“I have a grand aunt?” Samger asked as she heaved a piece of luggage her mother could barely pick up into what was going to be her bedroom. Meiyo paused himself and brought a hand to his chin as his skin shifted underneath it.

“Not exactly. Shouko was friends with my father and insisted I call her Auntie. You could say you have a step-grandmother however.” Meiyo was not sure if that was even a term but it was the best he could come up with.

“Can I meet her today!? Or tomorrow?! Or Or!”

“Sammy, dear, can you help me with this?” Aja called from the other room. Meiyo pushed her forehead onto the chin of his mask.

“You can meet her eventually, dear.” Meiyo said before stepping away. “Whether or not I want you to.”

“What was that, dad?”

“It was a kami.”

“You’re not a kami, you’re a cool dad!” Samger smiled at him before rushing off. Meiyo had never experienced heart problems before in his life, even when met with poisons that directly attack it, but he suddenly felt like he knew their pain.

One of the major upsides of this old home was that it’s only a short fifteen-minute walk to get to a decent open-air market. Five if you want a not-so decent one. For once, his skin didn’t shudder between the moonfolk’s fur, a nezumi’s whiskers, the additional arms of an orochi or the comparatively plain flesh of a human. Meiyo was not a poet nor did he ever try to be. He was merely happy to be in a place where he knew what would happen. A group of kids chased a wooden wheel down the street as he faded past them. The children would later say, if asked, they never saw an assassin in their life, especially not on that day. Old habits die hard, especially when you’ve killed hard.

Each merchant he passed yelled out about their latest offerings: dried fish, live fish, too live fish, too dead fish, fresh vegetables, fresh rice, fresh fish stuffed with not as fresh veggies or rice, weapons, ways to keep kami away, candy, and more fish. Not that surprising when you live close to the harbor, but candy was a bit of a luxury. So were the women in his life so he had to make sure to get extra. As one of his bags slowly dwindled, the other quickly filled with enough for him to feast for a month. For his new family size, he imagined that he’d be back out here within the week.

As Meiyo continued to wander about, the clock struck noon and merchants quickly closed their stalls. His stomach encouraged him to find some form of food that he didn’t just buy. The first restaurant he attempted to talk to was run by a human with a tight topknot and an even tighter kimono.

“Many apologies, there’s gonna be a fight soon.”

“Well, I don’t want to be out here when that’s happening. Who’s fighting? Some samurai?”

“Sorry, can’t help you. Don’t wanna get hurt.”

“I’m not a fan of...” Meiyo was quickly silenced by the store owner slamming the door in his face. Rudeness is the same no matter what plane you are on. Time marched forward as did our changeling until a voice called out to him.

“How’s it going, Mei?!” Two people called him by that name. One was his love and the other was.

“Candle. I see you’re still alive.” Meiyo lightly placed his bags on the ground, resting on the side of a building, and turned around to face his old coworker. Candle was an azra, a purple skinned demon folk, who was a fan of light clothing that left little to the imagination. He currently had the advantage since he was perched atop a roof as a pigeon would be as it waited for treats. The clothing he wore was the same shade as the aftereffects of the pigeon eating those treats. “And still wearing fishnets. How tacky.”

“Says the bastard who dresses like a pyromancer blew up a wardrobe.” Candle took a quick drag on his diamond encrusted smoking pipe as he looked down upon him. A naïve akita began to bark at the two throwing insults.

“You haven’t seen me in three years and the first thing you say is an insult.”

“You literally insulted me first! Wait. When did you learn to talk back?”

“Around the same time I was fixing my broken ribs.”

“Oh, that should have been easy to fix with your magic… Oh wait.” Candle chuckled at his own joke and threw his head back as Meiyo threw a dagger at where his head was. “Feisty today, aren’t we?”

“Hound should have left you on that street corner she found you on.”

“But she didn’t!” Candle spun his pipe around. “How are your reflexes by the way?” Upon completing the spin, the pipe shifted in both size and mass to become a massive club a Kamigawa civilian would regularly call a kanabo but for the sake of space, club will suffice. The diamonds that previously were for decoration became brutal gouging pieces on said club. Candle closed the distance and proceeded to swing it at Meiyo’s ribs. The target pushed a hand off the ground and bounced away from the blow, letting the club make a nice indent in the ground.

“Much better than yours. Perhaps you should have- “Meiyo was quickly cut off by a shadow of the club hitting him upside the head, knocking him ass over teakettle.

“Remembered what my magic did? I did, thank you!” The memories of why Candle was a good assassin rushed into Meiyo’s mind, along with a ton of blunt force trauma-induced pain. Candle could, at least back when he was friends with him, make shadows real and animate them. He could spend a bit of time thinking about how Candle being able to force the shadow to do something different than his body or how that it felt like he held back with that blow but currently, his focus was on the massive headache he suddenly obtained.

“Ow.”

“Really? I hit you upside the head with a twenty-pound club and all you can say is ow?” He sighed and his shadow moved up next to him. “Can you believe this guy?” The shadow shook its head.

“You’ve replaced your old straight man with your shadow? That’s sad.” Meiyo balanced himself on a post that was only a few feet away from his bags. Any port in a storm as the saying goes.

“Unfortunately, my old straight man left the entire plane after a few _measly_ broken ribs.”

“And who caused that?” Meiyo said as he grabbed onto his throbbing-like-his-heart-when-he-sees-aja head.

“To be fair, you were being a dick.” Candle grabbed a hold of the other side of meiyo’s hair while in his delirium.

“And now I get to do the same to the rest of your…. Why are you heavier?”

“I’m sorry? Are you calling me fat?”

“No, O-Kagachi no. I mean you look fine. You’re just slightly heavier.”

“You hit me upside the head with your weapon then you call me fat.”

“LISTEN TO ME. I’m not calling you fat, you’re just barely a pound heavier.”

“Ah, that. That’s private.”

“YOU’RE USING YOUR SHIFTING FOR THAT?” Meiyo responded to Candle’s rude question with a dagger to the torso. The azra jumped away from him, pulled the dagger out, and threw it at the bags, cursing in the Kamigawa tongue.

“You stabbed me!”

“It’s what I do.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to just stab people.”

“You just attacked me.”

“It was a love tap!”

“I might have a concussion.” Meiyo said as he looked over to the now blood covered food bag that he bought but only moments ago and a small snail that begin to near a puddle of crimson. “And you seemed to have ruined my groceries.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Let me fix that.” The shadow of candle swung out and smashed the bag across the floor of the market. A strange emotion flooded into Meiyo’s mind. It wasn’t his love for Aja or Samger, nor the satisfaction of a job well done, not the discomfort of shifting unnaturally when a new animal or being is present and not even the pleasure of eating a good meal. It boiled up inside of him and his teal flesh slowly shifted to a dark purple hue.

“This is neither a threat nor a warning. I’m going to slaughter you.” A young crow perched on a nearby railing as he tore off his gloves.

“I’d like to see you try, Mei Mei. It’d be the second time a former partner tried and failed to kill me.” Candle allowed Meiyo to close the distance, but he refused the invitation. He instead pulled out another dagger and began to systematically cut away his tight leather armor and boots.

“Mei, I appreciate the sentiment but killing you topless feels a bit… I don’t know boring. Bland?” The shadow muttered something into his’s ear. “Ah! Defeatist. That’s the word. Thank you.”

“I can’t fight if I can’t breathe.” He answered as he threw the remaining scraps of clothing at a now spooked alley cat.

“I must have knocked out most of your brain with that blow. Wonder what a second would do.” The shadow lunged forward and Meiyo trailed underneath it, sliding inhumanely on the ground. Meiyo brought a hand to Candle’s neck, slamming him to the ground. Candle screamed and swung again at Meiyo but only hit air as he slid away.

“YOU BASTARD. Y-YOU… DID YOU JUST BITE ME?!? WHO DOES THAT?!?”

“I’m a shapeshifter. And you taste terrible. Your apple body wash tastes like your personality. Trash.” His hand seemed to both spit out the comments and a bit of blood.

“I see you haven’t wasted much time when you were away.” Candle muttered as he stood back up with assistance from a shadow. “I was partially hoping you’d be a pushover.”

“Are those your final words?” His voice came from his mouth again as small talons came from the tips of his fingers.

“Nope. Let’s go with fuck you.” The shadow lunged first and Meiyo dodged just as he did before. Only to get hit in the right arm with the more solid club. The sound of something snapping echoed through the otherwise quiet marketplace, silencing the dog from earlier and scaring off a bird. That sound was followed with Candle screaming as he got a claw right across the back, making his white kimono a bad choice in hindsight. He shouted something about what it costed to order that but fortunately for Meiyo, he decided to not shapeshift any ears. The shadow followed up the assault with a helm strike at Meiyo. It slamming into the ground and the quarry suddenly disappearing made for quite the confusion. The slime dripping onto candle’s head revealed what happened.

“YOU CAN FLY? WHEN THE HELL DID YOU GET WINGS?’

“I didn’t get wings, I copied them.”

“I call bull.” Candle yelled as a second shadow appeared behind Meiyo and quickly ripped off one of the wings with its clawed talons. Meiyo plummeted as did his expectations of this fight. Thankfully, he landed in a large barrel of too dead fish. Thankfully was the wrong word choice. Terribly is a better fit as the remaining wing returned to skin yet the wound of the other remained. He brought a hand across it as magic danced from his fingertips, stitching the flesh like grandmother attempting to make a scarf for her darling granddaughter.

Candle wasn’t looking much better. The claws ran deeper into him than he expected, and the multiple shadows seemed to be taking his opponent’s breath away. Each assassin had enough energy for around one more blow, if that. They both stood up, glared at each other, and ran for first blood. Meiyo aimed for the throat as Candle aimed for the head. They both met what they were aiming for but only for a split second.

“Well well well, what’s happening here, boys?” A jovial feminine voice split the attacks as the owner felt a slight cut and a love tap. Both of the assassins found a burst of energy and jumped away. Both of them, with years of killings under their belt, froze just enough to tremble before what they saw. The woman grabbed her head and cracked it to the side, which somehow closed both the cut and the dent from the love tap.

“Candle, you were off today! And you said you were going to get us lunch!” The woman wore a menacing wolf, or other form of hound, mask over the side of her head and seemed to be coated in sutures, scars and fishnets. The last was clothing, that she was able to pull off, the rest were semi-permanent from Meiyo’s memory.

“I-I mean I am... This is uhhhh pro-bono!”

“Ah, you were doing this for exposure?”

“Y-yes?”

“You’re an assassin, you idiot. You don’t do stuff for exposure.” The woman smacked him, who shrieked as his flesh began to bandage itself back together and left the only proof of the fight was the copious amount of blood on the floor. She stood up, spun on her heels and walked towards Meiyo.

“Hound.”

“Ah, you remember my name.” She held out a hand to him which he quickly smacked away.

“Bone broke, you can’t fix it.”

“Honey, I can fix a lot of things.” Hound grabbed the limp arm and with a guttural growl, the flesh around the bone forced itself back into place. This, in turn, forced the bone fragments into the right spot. With a bit more magic, the fragments turned into complete bone. This also hurt signifigantly worse than a bone’s normal healing process. This was emphasized by the sound of several of the same voice screaming in unison. “Feeling better?”

“Physically, no.”

“Emotionally is fine too.”

“Not that either.”

“How long has it been since we chatted?”

“3 years, 4 months, 20 days, 6 hours, and 9 minutes.”

“You’ve been counting?”

“Not actively. Been busy.”

“With what?”

“My wife.” Hound laughed and looked over at Candle.

“Meiyo learned how to make jokes! That’s amazing. Those 3 years have been pretty good on you huh?”

“Jokes?” Hound blinked several times at this.

“Meiyo, as your effective mother, you cannot tell me you had a wedding and didn’t invite me.”

“Oh, we didn’t have a wedding.”

“Oh, thank god.”

“But we do have a child.”

“YOU HAVE” She paused to do a mixture of a sigh and a scream. “CANDLE DID YOU KNOW THIS?” Candle looked dumbfounded in the same way a dog looks when you hide a treat in a place it can’t reach.

“Yes, she’s nineteen.”

“M-meiyo. I was going to tear both of you a new one for fighting after not seeing each other since the last fight which almost killed both of you, but I cannot say anything right now.” She threw a large coin purse at him along with a fairly similar bag of groceries.

“Thank you?”

“Candle, we’re leaving before Meiyo breaks my mental fortitude more than he already has.” Hound picked up the Azra like a bag of potatoes and pointed to Meiyo. “We’re talking about this later.”

“About what?”

Hound gestured to the entirety of him then disappeared from sight.

Meiyo did not understand what that meant, and his arm was surprisingly functional for being broken and fixed within five minutes. He quickly gathered up all his supplies and looked through them. One item was different from the rest. It was a small letter with “I’m sorry” on the front in Hound’s handwriting. Meiyo crumpled it, slashed it and began his way home. He decided if Samger asked where he got the candy, he would say it was from his grandma. The look on her face already showed up in his mind and a smile crept along his face. It was also at this point he realized he was still purple and topless. Aja will most likely enjoy that.


End file.
